The Columns Gallery is pleased to present ‘Fold & Unfold’, its first solo exhibition of the works by Korean contemporary artist Byeong Sam Jeon. The exhibition features four series of framed mixed-media, diptych prints, a video and some NFT pieces, exploring the intertwined relationship of sculpture, print and image-making. 

Many half-folded photographic prints, stacked and layered in various uniformed arrangements, serve as the primary construction for the serial works of Moment, Cosmo, Wave, and Blossom. Jeon reduces the formal qualities of an image to a thin line of ink exposed through its straight edge. These unconventional manipulation and qualities are also present in his NFT works and Lost, a framed video displaying stripes derived from an image of a tower bridge in London. Played in a loop, the lines constantly vibrate, emerge and disappear to capture the hypnotic experience of walking across one.

Through Jeon’s deconstructive approach, all representational subject and original context of the print, image or text becomes rendered insignificant, distorted and repeated to create a unique  spread and echo of gradient blurs and colours. Visually, they are a materialisation of freedom - calming waves, blooming flower forms and inviting wormhole-like portals to other worlds which  serves as an immersive space for one’s introspection on life. 

Transforming the materiality of media, the inventive and playful works in ‘Fold & Unfold’ creates a dynamic installation that fully immerses the viewer in a sensorial experience, poetically tackling themes of entrapment and freedom in the daily lives of individuals.